


magical

by SunshineScorpius



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: A small dose of yolly, Gen, Karl is a creatures DORK, M/M, Yann likes to cause chaos, a magical trip and a magical relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:28:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26191207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunshineScorpius/pseuds/SunshineScorpius
Summary: Magic is everywhere, in creatures both dangerous and soft, and in relationships and secret kisses. A Hogwarts trip to Newt Scamander's Magical Creatures Sanctuary proves exactly that. Featuring a Hufflepuff who wants to stroke every creature, two Gryffindors hellbent on wreaking havoc, and two pining Slytherins who just need a spare moment to talk about the kiss they shared that morning.
Relationships: Scorpius Malfoy/Albus Severus Potter
Comments: 14
Kudos: 80





	magical

“What’s up with those two?” Rose asked Karl, peeping behind her at her cousin, Albus, and his best friend Scorpius, both of whom were sitting next to each other (as usual) but suspiciously quiet. It was rather rare to be in a small space with Scorpius Malfoy and not be hearing him talk about whatever it was that was on his mind at that exact moment. Rose had to admit she was a little worried. Albus tended to be quieter, but not around Scorpius either. Something was definitely wrong.

Karl, however, didn’t seem as interested and only shrugged at Rose’s question, half-reading his book on Magical Creatures.

The train to Surrey had left painfully early that morning, even for early birds like Rose and Scorpius. The trip to see Newt Scamander’s Magical Creatures Sanctuary had been announced at the beginning of the year for all 5th years and up taking Care of Magical Creatures class. It wasn’t a class that Rose would normally have continued, but she had a spare moment in her timetable and Albus and Karl practically begged her.

Rose rolled her eyes and stood, walking through the aisle to where Albus and Scorpius were sitting. She sat in front of them just as Scorpius was about to speak, the beginning of Albus’ name leaving his lips just as she sat down, before he shut his mouth promptly and smiled at her.

“Hi, Rose!” he greeted, as preppy and enthusiastically as he always did. Rose liked it, it made her feel nice that someone liked talking to her.

“Hi, is everything okay over here?”

Albus sat straight up in his seat. “Wha- why wouldn’t it be?”

Rose shrugged. “You guys are pretty quiet, that’s all.”

“We’re tired,” Scorpius jumped in quickly, “getting up early and all that, you know what Al’s like,” he joked, nudging Albus’ shoulder slightly with a grin, but Albus only slightly smiled in return.

“Oh, ‘kay, I’ll just leave you guys to it,” she said, hopping back up from the temporary seat and back next to Karl.

Scorpius watched her go, Gryffindor robes flowing behind her as she walked, hoping she was out of earshot enough when he turned to Albus. “I think we should talk about this,” he whispered. 

Albus leaned over and pressed a finger to his lips, causing Scorpius’ heartbeat to increase tenfold. His mind wandered back to that very morning, when they woke next to each other, their legs tangled between the sheets. This was only slightly out of the ordinary. They had shared a bed a few times, usually just from falling asleep after a sugar rush, or sneaking into each other's beds after a nightmare and falling asleep talking. They never usually woke up so  _ entangled _ .

But that was nothing. What was  _ something _ was the small talk they engaged in, before their lips crept closer and closer together like an invisible string was pulling them together, before they connected.

It had been the most magical feeling in the entire world.

Until Craig had woken them by shouting about it being trip day and neither of them have had a chance to talk about the kiss they shared ever since.

Scorpius didn’t even know if Albus liked it, or if he wanted to do it again. Scorpius so desperately wanted to do it again.

“We can talk about it in a less-” Albus cut himself off as Polly walked passed, shooting them a quick smile. “-less busy environment.”

He finally removed his finger from Scorpius’ lips, letting a bit of air into Scorpius’ lungs. “What if we don’t get-”

“Right, ever’one,” Professor Hagrid interrupted the 5th years, including Albus and Scorpius. Scorpius sunk down into his seat, already feeling defeated with the day ahead. “We’re about five minutes out, so get ready for some learning.”

An excited rumble rang throughout the compartment as students began packing up their belongings that had become unpacked in the long journey down south. 

#

“Gather round, gather round,” Hagrid was saying, gesturing for the students to huddle in a big circle. “I want yer to meet our tour guide,” Hagrid stepped aside to reveal a small man with a red face, panting slightly as though he’d ran up four flights of stairs to reach them on time.

“Sorry I’m a little late,” he spoke through breaths, “we had a hippogriff get loose but it is all under control.” Scorpius didn’t need to be watching Albus to see the huge grin that was painted across his face. Most people called Scorpius a nerd, not realising that Albus was a giant dork too - especially when it comes to magical creatures. “I’m Jude Pokeby, I’ll be your guide, I’ll answer any questions and queries you may have! It’s a rather big place so we should get started, any questions?”

Karl’s hand shot up in the sky, “we will be able to touch any of them?”

“Maybe some of the less dangerous creatures?”

Karl’s hand shot up again. “What about feeding them?”

“That depends if it’s close to feeding time.”

And again. “Do you have any babies?”

“How about we start the tour and you can see for yourself?” Jude responded, turning away and muttering to himself, “we’ve got an eager one, haven’t we?” Scorpius wasn’t sure if Karl heard him, but he wasn’t exactly the most quiet. 

Jude called them all to follow and the group of students happily chatted away as Jude led them towards the lake section of the sanctuary. This particular sanctuary was one of the biggest in the UK, founded by Newt Scamander and taken over by his children when he retired. It has many different sections, each one with the environment fitted for the specific creatures, a lake area, woodland area, snowy, dark, wide fields, and more enclosed spaces for creatures who like to burrow. Scorpius had read up on it before the trip and told Albus all about it, watching in pure joy as his eyes were lit up in fascination and awe.

There were a few gasps from the students - Albus included - as they were led into the lake section dedicated to the water creatures being looked after in the sanctuary. Scorpius was not-so-secretly hoping to spot a kelpie after becoming fascinated by the creature since he was a little boy and his mother used to make up magical stories on magical creatures. She still does sometimes on nights where he cannot sleep, when his nightmares become too much for him to handle. She’ll come into his room and cradle him, rocking him back and forth and making up stories until he calms down. He’s never felt safer than when he’s in his mother's arms.

“This here is a plimpy,” Jude explained as they stopped at the first bit of water. There was a small fish-like creature with long legs jumping around in excitement at all the guests. Karl made his way to the front of the group and knelt down, the muddy terrain squelching beneath his knees and muddying his school trousers.

“Can I touch it?”

“Be very careful,” but Karl was already letting the plimpy sniff his hand before Jude had given the affirmation.

“What does it do?” Yann asked, watching Karl stroke the creature.

“Not much,” Rose and Sophia answered at the same time before smiling at each other. 

“Their eyes are used in potion making, sadly,” Scorpius said.

“Yeah, and the merpeople in the black lake tend to think they're just pests and tie their legs together and let them float away,” Albus added. Scorpius nudged him proudly.

“Can we do that?” Yann asked.

“NO,” all four of them shouted in response.

Yann threw his hands up in the air. “I was kidding!”

They wandered through the rest of the lake area. Jude explained how the kelpie they used to look after had been fully nursed back to health and returned to its natural habitat, much to Scorpius’ dismay.

After the lake section, it was already time for lunch. They were taken to the workers' offices, where there were other creatures around, such as a fwooper, a crup puppy and a kneazle that were happy to let the students stroke them. Polly and Yann immediately began making the kneazle chase a laser light and letting it run amuck around the room, getting giggles out of many of the other students.

Scorpius, however, didn’t have much of an appetite or wasn’t feeling up to watching the kneazle play. He wanted to talk to Albus, he wanted this massive weight on his chest to be lifted. He put his sandwiches away in his bag and stood, looking back at Albus and hoping he’d follow.

Outside in the hallway, Scorpius waited for Albus, feeling his own heart racing and his mind a mess of words as he struggled to figure out what to say. The door opened, but it was Rose who came out.

“Oh, hey,” she looked around, her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. “Whatcha doing out here?”

“It was a little warm in there, needed some space,” he lied - or half-lied, he did need space.

“Right, well, we’re not supposed to leave the room unless it’s for the bathroom,” she reminded, ever in the Prefect state of mind. She patted him on the arm before slipping past him and towards the bathroom herself.

Just as Scorpius was about to give up waiting for Albus, the door opened again and out popped the black-haired boy that seemed to have a racing affect on his heart. 

“You okay?” Albus asked in a hushed tone.

“Albus, I think we really need to-”

“Boys, yer not supposed to be out ‘ere,” Hagrid’s voice came from down the hall. “Back in the room please.”

Scorpius sighed and nodded, following Albus back into the room with Hagrid behind him.

“You should eat,” Albus reminded as they sat down. He smiled kindly at him and nudged his shoulder a little. Scorpius smiled back and continued to eat his lunch. 

Things could be worse, Albus could be avoiding him altogether, but Scorpius had the feeling Albus wanted to talk just as much as he did.

#

Albus was practically bouncing on his heels once the tour for the bigger and more dangerous creatures had ended and they could head towards the woodland creatures. Due to the danger level of some of the creatures, they were not allowed to see them properly, but with the smaller ones, there was less risk which meant they were allowed to interact more. 

Albus tried not to think about how quiet Scorpius had been since lunch. He knew what was bothering him - the  _ kiss _ they had shared that morning. The kiss that was the best thing that Albus had ever experienced but soon followed the overwhelming crushing fear that he had ruined his one and only friendship. That wasn’t something he could risk.

But Scorpius was still talking to him at least, that had to mean  _ something . _

The first creature they come to is in a large cage made out of one-way glass. Albus pushed his way to the front, along with Karl, to peer inside at the creature.

“This is a cockatrice, a very dangerous creature. It’s behind a one-way glass screen so it cannot look directly at us, it’s stare can kill you in seconds,” Jude said, dramatically gesturing to the rooster-like creature with a lizard tail behind the glass. 

“Wicked,” Karl and Albus muttered at the same time, their hands pressed against the glass and breath fogging it up slightly.

“Let the others look,” Hagrid said and both Karl and Albus knew it was directed at them. They both let out a groan, and Albus could’ve sworn he heard Scorpius giggle from the back of the group of students. Albus turned and shot him a pouted look, to which Scorpius grinned and threw his hands in the air in surrender.

They walked through other creatures; a porlock camp, mooncalves; a herd of fairies and many others. It was the hedgehog like creature named a knarl that struck up a fuss within the group (apart from when a herd of fairies began tugging on Polly’s hair before moving on to Rose, fascinated by the curliness and trying to pull at her space buns. Yann cast the  _ immobulus  _ spell to stop them all, then they all worked on removing the fairies from the two girls’ hair together).

“Be careful with this one,” Jude had warned as they approached the knarl. It was sleeping soundly on a rock, but woke when it heard the students approach. “It is feeding time for this creature, does anyone want to volunteer?”

Immediately, Karl’s hand shot up in the air, as well as Albus’ own. Unfortunately, Jude picked Karl and Albus tried not to be too disappointed. Scorpius patted him on the shoulder and sent him a sad smile.

“They can bite, so be very careful,” Jude came up next to Karl and handed him a bag full of food. “We’re just going to throw the little bits of food at him. Normally I would feed him out of my hand, but as he doesn’t know you, it’s best not to do that just yet.”

The students gathered round Karl and the knarl as he slowly fed him. As he did, Jude was talking about interesting facts about the knarl, all of which Albus already knew. They all already knew, they studied knarls in their third year, but still it was nice that he was trying. 

“Oh, there’s another one,” Yann said, breaking off from the group and heading over to another smaller knarl a short distance away.

Jude’s focus was immediately on Yann. “She’s not as friendly, I would be careful young man.”

“OW! He bit me!” this came from Karl, who had taken advantage of the Magizoologists distraction to feed the knarl out of the palm of his hand. Most of the class immediately backed up, many bumping into Albus and Scorpius in their haste to get away from the creature. 

Jude seemed torn on whether to help Karl and his injury or stop Yann from getting a similar one. 

Luckily, Scorpius was there. He ran to Karl’s side and brandished his wand. He gently took Karl’s hand in his and muttered a spell to clean the wound and stitch it up. Watching him work with such care and gentleness made Albus’ heart swell. He was so kind, sometimes too kind for his own good. 

“Thank you,” Karl said. Scorpius nodded and patted his back, standing up and helping Karl to his feet. Yann had come to his senses and backed away from the other knarl and had now come to see if Karl was okay and Scorpius returned to Albus’ side.

Jude quickly led them out of the knarl’s home and into the final section of the day.

#

“Lastly, we’re heading into the bowtruckle camp,” Jude announced as he opened the door, letting a student in one by one so that the bowtruckles couldn’t escape out the door. “Be careful where you step, the creatures are quite small and often blend in with the grass and trees.”

Inside was beautiful, a giant woodland area with plenty of trees for the bowtruckles to explore and climb upon. Scorpius had always liked the forest. He used to like climbing trees as a kid, even though he was rather clumsy and his father always had to stand at the bottom in case he fell.

Without prompting, the students spread across the room, fascinated by the little stick-like creatures. Whilst he had been taking in his surroundings, Scorpius had lost track of Albus. He spun on his heels, looking for that familiar mop of raven hair. He found him under one of the trees, looking rather sad, so Scorpius made his way towards him.

“What do you think I should do?” Scorpius stopped in his tracks upon hearing Albus speak up, a little confused because he couldn’t  _ see _ anyone sitting with him. Still, as desperate as he was to talk to Albus, he decided not to intrude on his conversation. Scorpius went to turn on his heels when he spoke up again. “What would you know, you can’t even speak.”

It was then Scorpius noticed the small bowtruckle perched in Albus’ hands, looking up at him expectantly, like he’d been waiting for Albus to make this realisation for a while now. Scorpius couldn’t help but smile to himself. It seemed perfectly fitting of Albus to seek comfort in a creature that would listen to him. 

They both loved magical creatures for the same reason: they couldn’t judge them; they couldn’t bully them; they found comfort in them. It was why they both often helped Hagrid out at Hogwarts, and sometimes they’d sit apart and bond with their specific creature and in a way would still be bonding with each other. Communicating without words: his mother said it was the most important thing to any relationship.

_ …  relationship. _

The thing he so desperately wanted with Albus but was far too scared to ask, to take the leap, to jump into new waters.

Scorpius looked around at his classmates, seeing them all distracted with their own bowtruckles to notice him and Albus, and decided that he  _ had _ to talk to Albus. The question had been weighing on his lips for too long, bringing down his heart. He needed to know what Albus wanted, and he could work on fixing his broken heart after.

Scorpius marched over to him and sat crossed legged next to him, facing him. His heart was racing, faster than he had ever felt it beat. Faster than it had been that morning when their lips connected for the first time - and maybe the last time.

“It’s not a good time,” Albus mumbled, a little sadly, before Scorpius could even figure out what to say.

“Will it ever be a good time? We need to talk, Al,” he whispered back as well as he could; Albus always teased him for not being able to whisper. 

Albus remained quiet. If Scorpius looked hard enough he’d be able to see the cogs turning in his brain as he figured out something to say. Scorpius looked around to make sure no one was close enough to hear him, then he leaned in closer. “Albus? That kiss… this morning,” he had to take another deep breath, watching Albus carefully. “It was magical for me, it’s what I’ve wanted for a long time, but it’s okay if that’s not what you want and you don’t feel the same, I understand. I just  _ need _ to still be your friend.”

“I wanted it as well,” he mumbled, so quietly that Scorpius barely heard what he said. 

“You did?”

Finally,  _ finally _ , Albus looked at him. His green eyes were shining, illuminated by the sun above. He looked beautiful. He always looked beautiful, but Scorpius didn’t have many moments like this where he could just appreciate him. 

It seemed crazy that a boy like Albus Potter would be interested in someone like him. He talked too much, got too anxious, had too many bad dreams. Albus was perfect in every way and Scorpius was just ordinary. 

“I want to do more than that too,” he added shyly. “I want to hold your hand and… and…”

In a moment of bravery, clearly seeing Albus struggling for words to express his feelings, Scorpius reached over and grabbed Albus’ hand. “It’s okay, I know, me too.”

“So,” Albus bit his bottom lip and blinked a couple of times. Scorpius had to refrain himself from thinking how adorable he looked at that moment. “We’re doing this?” he leaned forward and whispered, “ _ dating? _ ”

Scorpius couldn’t help the involuntary smile that graced his features. “I would like that.”

“Me too,” Albus smiled too, a wide one that crinkled his eyes.

Scorpius’ heart had never felt lighter. It felt on a whole new plane of existence, dancing in the summer sun freely and magically, knowing that the boy he really liked  _ did _ like him back. For once, it seemed like the universe was on his side.

#

The train ride home seemed incredibly long, despite most of the students sleeping for the majority of the journey. Rose was woken from her slumber when Karl accidentally hit her in his own sleep. She rubbed her eyes and looked around. Karl was cuddling a hippogriff plush toy with his one arm, head tilted against the window with a blanket around him that Rose was pretty sure belonged to Polly. His glasses were no longer on his face, leading Rose to believe that Polly had taken them off when she placed the blanket over him.

Polly and Yann were also still asleep a couple rows down. Yann had his legs thrown over Polly’s thighs and their hands were entwined with their school robes being used as a makeshift blanket. Sophia was reading a book, she looked up and smiled at Rose when she sensed her looking. Craig was lying across two seats on his stomach, his arm dangling on the floor next to a sweet wrapper that he clearly had meant to put away but fallen asleep before he managed to.

Then she looked around and saw Albus and Scorpius. Albus’ head was leaning against Scorpius’ chest and Scorpius had one arm around his shoulder. The other hand was clasped tightly with Albus’. She’d never seen the two of them look so content and relaxed. Rose smiled to herself and leaned back in her seat, pulling out a book and reading with a smile on her face for the rest of the journey.

**Author's Note:**

> hello, I hope you all enjoyed! I would very much appreciate any comments or kudos! Writing has not been very easy for me recently and it's taken me a while to create something I'm proud of and I hope you all feel the same! Thanks for reading!!


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